Packing My Bags - SNGF

For Saturday Night Genealogy Fun this week, Randy, at Genea-Musings, asks where we'd go if we won Ancestry.com's Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes.

The prize? $20,000 in travel money, an 8 hour consultation with an expert genealogist, 5 one hour consultations with local experts and 6 World Deluxe annual subscriptions (one for me and five for other family members.)

I can envision three different paths my journey could take. The journey I choose would probably depend on what records the experts were able to point me to.

Journey #1

I'd travel the country looking for records, meeting up with friends and making new friends on the way, and experiencing the migration routes of my ancestors! I'd travel for two or three weeks and return home for a couple of weeks before hitting the road again. Some of my travels would be made alone and others would include my husband and/or grandchildren. I figure I could spent four months or more on the road. I'd travel to Northern New York, Ottawa, Quebec; Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont; Virginia; Indiana, Michigan and Illinois; and of course to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library!

Journey #2

I'd fly to England and start my search in London. After lots of sightseeing I'd head northeast to explore the Cotswold region. I'd continue north with a stop in Carlisle before heading into Scotland to explore the countryside on my way to Paisley. From there I'll head to Ireland and hopefully the experts will have helped me determine where in Ireland I'll be going! I'd guess there would be enough money for a two months of travel if we can find budget accommodations.

Journey #3

I'd explore my husband's ancestry with him. Perhaps by traveling with me he'll discover an interest in his roots. To get him interested I think we'll start off with a Mediterranean or European River Cruise. I know his Italian ancestors came from the Potenza Region of Italy so we'll head there next. Moving on, we'll head to Germany with stops in Berlin and ??? Hopefully the experts came through and we have narrowed down exactly where to go next! With this itinerary we will probably be back home in four weeks.


Well it was fun to dream. My plans to retire at the end of the year have made my budget very tight. Throw in my next surgery and even traveling to Michigan this year is up in the air.

Weekly Rewind

My Week

This was a crazy week. There is always so much to catch up on after a vacation. Finding out that Apple's Tree has been listed in Family Tree Magazine's Fab Forty was the highlight of the week and probably will be the highlight of my entire year!

I had a snow day on Thursday and spent the day working on my timeline for Sarah Ann, which is not finished yet. With only two weeks to finish my submission for the COG I expect that there will be very little else done here until I have it finished as I have lots to say about her.

I spent a few hours this week catching up on episodes of Faces of America and The Generations Project and will share my thoughts in a future post.

I tried to catch up on all of the posts in my reader but there are only so many free hours in the week. GeneaBloggers are certainly prolific writers and there remain well over 1,000 posts that I haven't gotten to yet but there should be plenty to keep you reading all week in the list below!

Carnivals and Roundups

The third annual iGene Awards was hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene. It's always fun to look back and see what each of us thought were our best posts from the previous year. For the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy our task is to "Write a biography about a woman on your family tree starting with a timeline of their life."

 The 20th edition of Smile for the Camera, Valentine, was posted by footnoteMaven at Shades of the Departed. The word prompt for the next edition is is "Give Their Face A Place." March is Women's History month and you are asked to picture women back into history.

The February issue of Shades of the Departed Magazine is also available now. I haven't read mine yet but don't wait for me, from the contents page it looks like another wonderful issue!

The 8th edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival, Winter Sports in the Great White North, was hosted by Katherine Lake at Looking4Ancestors. This carnival is bimonthly so we have plenty of time to post our Canadian Fashion Fads.

Jessica Oswalt has posted the 26th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern Genealogy at Jessica's Genejournal. It was a carousel edition with varied topics. The topic for the next edition is "The Village of  my Ancestor."

Check out John Newmark's Weekly Genealogy Pics at TransylvanianDutch.

Randy Seaver was traveling too so Miriam of AnceStories helped him out with her picks for his Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings.

At CanadaGenealogy, or, Jane's Your Aunt, M. Diane Rogers celebrated her 5th blogiversary by starting a new column, January Genealogy - Finds and Favorites. I hope this becomes a regular feature on her blog.

Weekly Reading

Tim Abbott at Walking the Berkshires has written a series on the Court Martial of his ancestor, Col. Mattias Ogden. I have read Part I and Part II and I am frustrated that I haven't freed up enough time for the rest of the series. Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI

Craig Manon shared a family love story captured in letters at GeneaBlogie. Love Letters from Prairie du Rocher and Epilogue. Craig recently had surgery and I wish him a speedy recovery!

Bill West at West in New England,  is home from the hospital and recovering. I hope Bill is back to himself quickly!

At Before My Time, T.K. Sand is decorating her family tree - literally. Check out Heirloom of Hairloom, You Decide!

I always enjoy Greta's Memory Monday posts at Greta's Genealogy Bog and I loved Babies Got Rhythm.

Caroline Pointer had a wonderful but sad memory at Family Stories: The List. I have a similar story in my family however mine had a much happier ending.

At Family Matters, Denise had a couple of interesting items. The Genealogy Room at Internet Archive and Targeted Updates in Facebook.

At the California Genealogical Society and Library, Kathryn Doyle shared Kate's Story by member Patricia Burrow. I found this story inspirational as I have little hope of discovering Anna's biological parents, yet hope remains.

Randy's post at Genea-Musings, Is this why they came to San Diego? could easily have been titled "Why they left New York." Too funny!

At Herstoryan the search was on for an ancestral home, Mystery at the Corner of Brown and Hess (1879)

Amy Coffin tells you how you can use Digital Cameras as Notepads at We Tree.

The Educated Genealogist, Shery Fenley, discovered a cool new way to play with pictures.

Memories of an NCR Baby by Lori at Genealogy and Me, tells of her family ties to a company town. This is a story that many of our ancestors shared.

Tamerson Carlisle Binns 9 Aug 1910

The next letter was written by Tamerson to her mother, Anna. Two days earlier, on 7 August 1910, Tamerson Louisa Carlisle had married Harry Phineas Binns in Buchanan, Michigan just as her brother Frank had predicted. The very first letters that I shared in the Camfield series were written by Harry's aunt, Sarah Binns Stawseight and she mentioned Harry as a child in the second.

Tamerson and Harry had traveled on their Honeymoon to Chicago and surprised her cousin, Fred Camfield, who invited them to stay the night. Fred treated them to a movie. (No mention is made of Fred's wife Libbie.) On the way back from the theatre Tamerson ran into a bit of trouble:

On the way to the car afterward something flew into my eye and I am still going one eyed. It was too late to have it out then so I left it until this morning and it is so Jewish here that it was after 10 before we could find a Dr. here we had to go several blocks + I was nearly wild with the pain. He cocaned my eyes and removed a small black speck from under the upper lid. I've been lying down most of the time since + my head aches fearfully. It keeps H. busy putting ice compress on my eye. Think it will be much better to-morrow. Hope is.

She also talks of shopping and she "rode on the moving stairway."

Mentioned is meeting another Buchanan resident, Mr. Richards.



For more see:
Camfield Family Letters
Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner
Michael Camfield



Binns, Tamerson Carlisle (Chicago, IL) to “Dear Mother”
[Sarah Ann Camfield Carlisle] Letter. 9 August 1910. Digital Images 1-5.
Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]
Snowville, New York. 2010.
[Carlisle Family, Box #1, Correspondence, 1910-1911,
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]

Giddy

We had a great week in Florida! I can't tell you how exciting it was to look at houses and actually start planning for retirement. I returned to work in a great mood, ran to Mom's on my break, back to work, picked up pizza on the way home and anxiously awaited the kids arrival. Dinner with the kids was great, they all had things to share about their week off and return to school.

A great week followed by a great day! The kids sat around the table and John got them all online so I picked up my computer to quickly check my email and look what I found!

Wow! I was speechless - for about 10 seconds. My husband offered his congratualtions. The kids wanted to know what all the fuss was about. They were unimpressed, after all I haven't written anything about Amelia Earhart and she was our cousin wasn't she? I haven't even written about the branch of the family that owns the candy factory. In short, my genealogy blog is boring to them.

Thank you to all of you who find my ordinary ancestors and my ramblings here worth reading and voting for! I am absolutely floored and thrilled to have Apple's Tree included in Family Tree Magazine 40 Best Genealogy Blogs. And to be listed with so many other great blogs is amazing to me. Congratulations to you all!

My husband is afraid this will go to my head. Every time he looks at me I just grin and he shakes his head and says I'm giddy. Yes, giddy I am :-)

Bathroom Follies

While I'm away I thought I'd share one of my travel follies from a few years ago. This originally appeared at The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree. While our destination was different on that trip I've found that the experience is pretty much the same no matter where we roam.

John and I aren’t quite yet to the point where we need to buy a trailer to tow a blue-boy when we travel but we do make fairly frequent stops. I dread the filthy gas station facilities so we usually try and stop at public rest areas.

Most of the places we’ve stopped have commodes that flush for you. Are they on a timer or something? It’d be really nice if they’d wait until I was done! Am I the only one that this happens to? Then you get out to the sinks. Nobody else seems to have any problem but there I am waving my hands all over trying to get the water to start. At one stop I gave up and moved to the next sink and started waving again only to have the first sink turn on. Then I have to make the huge decision – paper or air dry? I have yet to get one of the new “no touch” paper dispensers to work without touching the red sensor. The air dryers involve more wild hand waving. In the interest of saving both trees and energy I usually opt for the seat of my pants.

We stopped at one rest area that had a little cut out in the wall and was labeled that it would give you water, soap and then air all in one spot if you’d simply place your hands in the wall. It must have been designed by a tall man but since there was nobody else around I decided to give it a try. I lifted my hands up to shoulder level and plunged them into the wall. Of course nothing happened so I started wiggling my fingers and then waving my hands as much as the small space would allow. Luckily for me they had an old fashioned sink. John said they had the same set up on the mens side and it turned on after he’d moved on to the regular sink, so it’s not just me! We’re lavatory challenged as a couple!

At our first hotel things were pretty straight forward. I was quite pleased that I didn’t need an instruction manual to turn on the shower. My luck changed when we got to the resort. The commode worked fine but I could not get water to flow from any of the three sinks. I called the desk and they sent maintenance down. Seems they’d turned off the water to the unit earlier in the day but failed to turn it back on. The unit has a really pretty corner unit - combo jetted tub/shower. I can’t reach the water controls until I get into the tub first! The water was scalding hot so I kept moving it towards the blue. Red for hot, blue for cold right? Wrong! I finally got the temperature right but there was nothing there to switch over to the shower. I pushed and pulled on everything until I gave up, got out of the tub and went in search of John. He got in the tub and proceeded to push and pull on everything to the point that I thought he was going to pull the thing right off of the wall! He finally pulled down on the ring where the water was flowing out and eureka! I later tried to take a bath but couldn’t get the jets to work. John to the rescue again. I simply hadn’t held the button down long enough. A couple of days later John went to take a shower and after getting in the tub discovered that we had no hot water. Hopefully I won’t run into any more new designs on this trip but I have a bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse just in case!

This is also the first trip where I have been provided reading material in the stall. At the resort they have “mini-billboards” on the stall doors so I can think and think about what shows I want to see. At the one of the visitor’s centers they had the schedule of events posted there and that was how I discovered they had a butterfly garden. With informative reading like that you better hope the line doesn’t get too long!

John Nardozzi 1933-2010

One life that touched so many others

My husband's uncle, John Nardozzi, passed away 5 February 2010. I didn't know Uncle Johnny very well, we'd see each other at various family events and chat awhile. So let me tell what I knew about him.

John was the youngest of eight children, born in Syracuse, NY on 18 June 1933 to Gennaro "John" and Angelina (Taddeo) Nardozzi. He grew up on Hawley Ave and was educated in the city schools. He attended Syracuse University, where he earned an accounting degree and was self employed as an accountant. He was a life long batchelor and a favorite uncle to many most all? of his neices and nephews. He had a quick wit and was always ready with a joke. He was also a big Syracuse University Sports fan and booster.

If Johnny and I had never met I could have learned most of the above from his obituary. When I learned of his passing I was saddened to realize that I knew so little about him.

On Tuesday evening, at his wake, I learned just how much he had meant to so many people. All the family that could come were there of course but there was also a steady stream of of people that all counted themselves as his friends. There were students that had rented rooms from him. John loved a good meal and ate out often. Waitresses, restaurant owners and regular dining companions came and they all had stories to tell. Wonderful stories. I knew John like SU sports but I didn't know just how much. He followed all of the sports, had season tickets and traveled to all of the away games that he could. He was also involved with an athletic alumni club. There were many people from the University, past athletes, other fans and again, they all had stories to share.

Most wakes of my experience are sad, gloomy affairs. This one was different. As the stories were told there were smiles and laughter and yet none of it seemed out of place. John was known for his sense of humor and I think he would have been pleased at the way his family and friends reminisced and celebrated his life.

We gathered again this morning to say our final goodbyes. The service and eulogy were given by a relative and that was comforting. We reflected on his life and focused on his sense of humor. We didn't linger long at the cemetery due to the cold and snow but we spent a couple of hours together as a family over a good, Italian meal.

Goodbye Uncle Johnny, you'll be sorely missed.

3rd Annual iGene Awards

The nominations have been made, the votes tallied and it is time to roll out the red carpet for the iGene Awards.

The nominees for Best Picture are........

• Winter in Pictures
• Nameless Faces
• Trip of a Lifetime

And the winner is.......

• Winter in Pictures! Winter in Pictures was written for the 64th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, Winter Photo Essay. It easily won the Best Picture Award for the pure joy captured in the 5th photo in the set.

 The nominees for Best Screen Play are.......

• Hospital Waiting Room
• Blizzard of '93
• Time on the Farm

And the winner is.......

• Time on the Farm! Time on the Farm was written for the 73rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy which was hosted here at Apple's Tree. All my grandchildren will have parts so they can experience farm life as I did. Nikki will get the lead because she loves horses. Mike will play the part of one of my cousins so he can fearlessly climb to the top of the tobacco barn. The part of my father will have to be played by my son, BJ, as he is the only one to have inherited Dad's bald head. We'll have to think long and hard on who should play the part of my step-mother. For the sake of the safety of the actors we'll need a pony that won't bolt and a cow that doesn't kick!

The nominees for Best Documentary are......

• Tippancanoe Place
• Buchanan Fire of 1862
• Eckley Miners Village 

And the winner is.......

• Buchanan Fire of 1862! Written for the 77th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, Disaster, Buchanan Fire of 1862 told the tale of a fire that affected my ancestors directly. This will be a big budget production with scenes of the fire and the destitute family in it's aftermath along with  a cut away shot of a war weary Hannah sitting in a Civil War Post Hospital, surrounded by injured soldiers, opening her letter and seeing the warning Unpleasant News.

The nominees for Best Biography are......

• Abraham Jay Buckles
• Anna
• Rose

And the winner is......

• Rose! Written for the 85th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, Orphans and Orphans, Rose told the sad the story of my great-grandmother and how she was effectively an orphan despite the fact that both her parents were alive and well.

The nominees for Best Comedy are.....

• Princess for a Day
• Dad's Campfire Songs
• Fun Charting Relationships

And the winner is......

• Dad's Campfire Songs! Written as my take on one of Randy's Saturday Night Fun prompts, this post was a double winner. The songs were funny and so was Jasia's reaction when she read it! Be sure to read her comment for a good laugh.

Here at Apple's Tree there is a new award this year, Best Infomercial. Which was my best how to tip that I shared in 2009? The nominees are.....

• Ancestry's Member Connect 
• Creating a Blog Index
• Apple's Apple Butter 

And the winner is........

• Ancestry's Member Connect! This was written when I saw several negative posts on a feature that I was quite happy with. I'm pleased with the presentation I made and hope that it cleared up some points.

And that concludes this edition of the iGene Awards. I want to thank our hostess, Jasia, at Creative Gene for throwing out the Red Carpet again this year!

Written for the 90th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

Weekly Rewind

Carnivals 

The 89th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted by Jasia at Creative Gene. The topic was poetry and I give everyone that participated a lot of credit! Poetry is simply beyond me and I couldn't even come up with a simple limerick. The next edition will be the Third Annual iGene Awards and submissions are due by February 15th.

The February 2010 edition of the Graveyard Rabbit Carnival: Cemetery Critters, has been posted by Julie Cahill Tarr at The Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

There are several carnival deadlines fast approaching. Head over to AnceStories and see Miriam Robbins Midkiff's February 2010 Calendar of Events for topics, dates and links.

Roundups

John Newmark shared his Weekly Picks at TransylvanianDutch. Featured was one of my posts - Thanks John!

Randy Seaver also highlighted one of my posts in his Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings. Thanks Randy!

Weekly Reading

At Nordic Blue, Chery Kinnick shared her search for her birth father. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of The Best Laid Genealogical Plans. I can only imagine how hard it was for Chery to share her story but I'm glad she did.

I can always count on Bill West at West in New England to dig up new little tidbits on my ancestors. This time he mentions my Kerley ancestors in The Case of Mary Gates.

Checkout the history of the horse drawn herse, The Last Ride, by footnoteMaven at the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal.

Join in the fun! Donna Pointkouski started it at What's Past is Prologue: If Genealogists Ruled the Television Networks. Be sure to check out all of the comments and links.

It is True Confession time at Greta's Genealogy Bog. I won't give it away but again, read the comments and look for links!

Joan Hill shared a very memorable event in her life, A Golden Anniversary, at Roots'n'Leaves. [My apology to Joan as I originally attributed this to Barara Poole. Thanks to Barb for pointing out my error!]

Dick has a great post, Orphans, Adoptions and Indentures, Part 1, at Dick's Genealogy and History Corner. He has indexed some adoption records from 1837-1906. The people adopting children were not just from Monroe County, some were from as far away as Michigan. I was disappointed that Anna's adoption was not listed but I didn't really expect it to be as I think it was an informal adoption and most likely in Onondaga County.

Gayle Gresham has attempted for follow in the footsteps of her ancestor - literally! Read about her adventure at Colorodo Reflections: The Escape.

Guest author, Peter Lagasse shared some very sound advice on how to handle a No Trespassing sign that may come up in your research at A Canadian Family.

I would really like some of Sharon's luck to rub off on me! Check out Sharondipity Strikes Again at kindred footprints.

Kathryn Doyle at The California Genealogical Society and Library has revealed the society's New Look. I like it!

Amanda Acquard has A New View of the SSDI at A Tale of Two Ancestors.

Diane asks, Eeny meeny miny, moe... which would you chose at Attic Treasures. I think we all have names like these in our trees but I've never seen a standard answer as to how to record them. Have you?

Lori played a game of "follow the leader" that led her astray. She is back on track with Joshua Hammond Norris at Genealogy and Me. I have played the "follow the leader" game many times both as leader and follower :(

What do RVing Geneabloggers do on a Rainy Day? They do lunch! Carol at Reflections from the Fence and Becky at Kinexxions, here, here and here.

Change your bookmarks. Joe Beine at Genealogy Roots Blog is moving his very valuable Records Directories.

At Virginia Family Tree Genealogy, Kevin Lett wrote about his experience, Taking digital photos of microfilm was not what I expected.

John Reid, at Anglo-Celtic Connections alerted us to the fact that the archives of the Ottawa Citizen are now on Google.

At Before My Time, T.K. found a timeline app. that you can use on your blog.

Debra at All My Ancestors had ... and one more [WorldCat] thing.

My Week

After a very trying day Friday I arrived home to the very sad news that John's uncle had passed away.

I spent my week trying to get caught up and ready for vacation.Weekly Rewind will be on hiatus the next two weeks. Please visit Genea-Musings and TransylanianDutch the next two weeks for their great roundups!

Etola Robinson, 23 April c.1900

South Bend, Ind. April 23

Dear Friends, as it has been a long time since I saw you and a longer time since I wrote you I will endever to drop you a few lines this evening.

I have been looking for Ashley to come and see me again until to day I went over to Joe's and they tell me hi is not here. what was the reason he did not stay? There is as much building as ever going on here. Mr. and Mrs. Mccombs got home two weeks ago yesterday he was much better but last week was in bed. has an absess in his ear about like Lib had you know. he was better yesterday. I am working every day and last of the nights am standing it first rate am riding my wheel and feel as though I was the whole thing.

Amelia went to Elkhart to day to visit Ralph his family is there now I should

page 2

have gone but have not gotten me any hat yet and so had nothing to wear on my head well how are every body in Buchanan? I have not heard from there since Ashley was here have been looking for a letter from Tamerson she usualy answers so promptly and it is now three weeks since I wrote her. Ruby is making grate calculations on her coming over here this summer I expect you have your house cleaning all done well I do not think I shall so much I am so clean all the time that it does not need it __.

I suppose Lizzie is gone to May's by this time.

Well Annie I thought I could write quite a long letter but I can not think of any more so will have to close. I hope you will write soon. I think maby I shall get over to Buchanan for one day next month

good night from your Friend
Etoley Robinson




This letter had no year written on it. In Toley's letter of 18 March 1900 she said, "have been out to Mrs. McCombs' sisters doing some work for her. Hazle McComb is staying with her while her Father and mother is away." So it seems likely that since this letter mentions their return home it seem likely that this letter was written in 1900.

Ashley was Anna's husband and Tamerson their daughter.

Joe Camfield was Anna's brother and Ruby his daughter.

McComb's were friends.

Amelia Gosline was Toley's niece and roommate.

Lib was Elizabeth Voorhees and she lived behind Anna in Mocasin Ave in Buchanan, MI.

I feel like I should know who Lizzie and May were but I'm drawing a blank right now. I'll add an edit if I figure it out.


For more see:
Camfield Family Letters
Descendants of Sarah Ann Wisner
Michael Camfield


Robinson, Etola (South Bend, IN) to “Dear Friends”
[Sarah Ann Camfield Carlisle] Letter. 23 April. Digital Images 1-2.
Privately held by Apple, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,]
Snowville, New York. 2010.
[Carlisle Family, Box #1, Undated c. 1900-1940,
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. 2008.]

February Shout Out

Comments are important to me and I would like to thank all of those who left comments in January with a little link love.

Thank you to:

Barbara Poole at Life From The Roots

Pam Warren at Granny's Genealogy and Granny Pam

Nikki-Ann at Notes of Life

J. M. at Tracing My Roots

Julie Cahill Tarr at GenBlog, Who Will Tell Their Story and others!

T.K. at Before My Time and Internet Buffet

Gini at Ginisology

Kay at Kay B's Place

Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy

Great Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog, GYR Afield and GYR of Northern VA

Frances at Branching Out Through the Years and Joyous Tomorrows

Cheryl Flemming Palmer at Heritage Happens

Harriet at Genealogy Fun

Becky Wiseman at Kinexxions

Wendy at New England Genealogy

Joan Hill at Roots'n'Leaves

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

Nancy at My Ancestors and Me

footnote Maven at Footnote Maven and Shades of the Departed

Dan Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations

Tipper at Blind Pig & the Acorn

Vickie Everhart at BeNotForgot and The Journal

Heather at A Day in the Life of the Collins 7 and Ravings of a Mad Bus Driver

Kathryn Lake of Looking 4 Ancestors

Elizabeth Thomas of Family, Friends and Neighbors

Leah Kleylein of Random Notes

Sheri Fenley of The Educated Genealogist

Diana R of Random Relatives

Stephen Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog